Kirby or Rainbow Vacuums (Read 1472 times)

I test vacuums for a guy in Slovenia. No, I'm not making this up. I have tested a bunch of vacuums like Dyson, Hoover, and Meile. Now he wants me to contact a Kirby rep and a Rainbow Vacuum rep so they can do an in home demonstration and I can test their vacuums.

Do any of you have either a Kirby or a Rainbow Vac. It's hard to get an understanding of what they are like on the web. Plus, anything I try to look at on their own websites always prompt me to ask for a salesman to visit my house.

I'm trying to get some opinions before I ask for a home invasion, I mean home visit. I'm not going to buy one, but I need to test these things out. Also, what is a home visit like from one of these guys?

We have a Kirby, and it is a good vacuum. My wife doesn't like it because it's pretty heavy to tote around our split level house. She bought another,lighter and cheaper one, but it doesn't vacuum as well.

The sales pitch...unless they've changed, and it has been 15 years, but it's a very, very high pressure pitch. I even go an uneasy feeling going to their "store" once to buy some extra bags.

Would I buy another one? No -- just too expensive for a vacuum cleaner. .

We have a Rainbow (3-4 years?) and love it. Yes it's pricey, and yes, you have to dump the gucky water after you're done, but boy, does it clean to a level beyond the typical vacuum. I bet it would suck up 5 lbs. of stuff out of the living room carpet after Kirby gave it his best effort.

Sales pitch? I guess I can't tell you how hard it would be to shove the salesman out the door without having made the sale.

Several lifetimes ago when I was desperate and naive I signed up to be a Kirby salesman. Their business model is ALL about the hard sell. In the early 90's the retail price was ~$1500. I can't imagine what it might be now.

I do recall that it seemed an impressive machine, both a good vacuum with decent attachments and doubles as a carpet cleaner.

I had the Kirby reps come to my house once--it was a guy and a girl each in their 20's. The girl seemed like the trainee, she did a lot of the demonstrating and took orders from the guy who did most of the talking. My wife had apparently fallen for the old "free cleaning" trick that their telemarketers use. At any rate, I did not know until that morning that they were coming.

The hard sell was beyond anything I had ever seen before in my life. I was embarrassed for them but not enough to give them the time of day. At the end of their performance they wanted me to pay $1500 for a vacuum cleaner on the spot when I didn't feel like I needed a vacuum cleaner.

When I said "NO" they did the old call-the-manager trick to try and see if they could get me a "special deal"--I think they went straight to $1,200. So without me even asking for a discount they were already set to take 20% off their initial asking price.

I kept saying "NO" definitively--not saying "not today", or "maybe another time" or anything to give them any hope, just "no"--and they would not accept it. Finally when they pointed out that I lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood and had kids and asked why didn't I think it was worth spending for the best vacuum I lost my patience.

I said that the reason I am able to live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood is that would never spend a grand on an fucking vacuum, I would never spend a grand on something I had not even thought I needed when I woke up that morning, and I certainly would never buy a vacuum from a door-to-door sales team who showed up at my house in a car worth less than the vacuum they were trying to sell. Thanks, bye.

I am a sales professional and tend to have a soft spot for sales people who are in low end positions just trying to make a living--but that was one of the most embarrassing and uncomfortable things I have ever witnessed.

LOL at mikeymike's story! My wife did the exact same thing with the Kirby - got 'em in for the ole 'free carpet cleaning' pitch. Hard, hard sell. My wife wanted to buy the darn thing at >$1000 (don't remember the actual price) right there on the spot. I said forget it but I knew she wanted it so bought one on ebay for about $350. She was very happy and we still use that stupid thing today. Good vacuum but heavy so guess who get's to do ALL the vacuuming, including lugging it up and down the stairs? Me - that's who! My solution to lugging it up and down the stairs? I replaced all the downstairs carpeting with hardwood. Done.

I grew up in a Kirby house. We got it when I was 4ish. At some point after I had left for college, the parents got a new one.

Some background: I grew up in an extremely poor house (until all the older siblings moved out when I was in junior high, which was hella good for me as the baby of the family). Yet we had the multi-grand Kirby. Yeah, my dad is not good with salesmen. Fast forward to 2012. He's 82 now and stuff shows up constantly that he's ordered off the teevee.

ANYWAY. It was a solid motherfucker and it cleaned up 'real nice'. I can't imagine it was any better than other vacuums though. It was heavy. It was LOUD. I mean, even in vacuum cleaner terms, this bad boy was L O U D.

And... I recall having to replace "the belt" on it repeatedly. As an adult, I've had three hoovers... never replaced a belt. Have replaced vaccums twice. In 25ish years, I've spent maybe 400 on 3 vacuums. Compared to 1500-2000k for one vacuum plus belts and belts and belts over probably 18-20 years.

Here's the short story. I bought a Dyson, but during my research of vacuums I saw an article on

Vacuum Wizard.com that if you wrote a 500 word review of your vacuum, you could win $50.

I bought my Dyson, wrote the review and got $50 from the owner of this website, who happens to be a guy in Slovenia.

He has a bunch of review type websites, and this is one of his more profitable ones.

Yes, I have reviewed other things for him, and another guy from Norway named Marius Bakken (a former Olympic 5K runner). I've reviewed Juicers, Running Shoes, Shredders, GPS Watches, and I think that's it.

Go to vacuum wizard now. He's looking for someone who works on vacuums to help him out one day a week. I only have time for like one review a month since I'm a teacher full time.

I have a Kirby I bought last summer, it was definitely a high pressure sales pitch and the only way they sell those things is the door-to-door 'free cleaning'. At the time my wife was sick and in the hospital so I was a little emotionally vulnerable, but when the guy said $2000 for a vacuum I literally laughed out loud and told him there was no way I was buying it, he finished the free clean and asked again 'what can I do to make the sale' as he had been doing all through the demonstration. I told him bring the price down $1000 and maybe I'll think about it, when he did I told him nope $1000 is still to much for a vacuum and he finally came down to $800. Honestly still to much for a vacuum, but it does do a really good job (I have 3 cats and it got up cat hair my other vacuum wouldn't even touch) and has a lifetime warranty. The other thing they try to do is take your old vacuum as a "trade-in" to lower the price as if there is a market for old used vacuums. I think it is really so that when they salesperson leaves and then the next day when you realize you paid $1000+ for a vacuum you can't return it b/c by that point they can say they have already sold/destroyed your old vacuum for parts then you have no vacuum at all - although there is supposedly a 72 hr return policy. I did not let the saleman take my old vacuum, I told him I'm paying for a vacuum and that's what I'm getting you are getting my $800 and that is ALL you are getting. I use the old one upstairs now b/c that Kirby is a b**** to get up the stairs